Chicken Cordon Bleu Burger

As I mentioned before, Ryan is helping out with the cooking this summer while I struggle my way through Chemistry and Precalculus. Despite his lack of experience and confidence in the kitchen, he is quite capable of preparing some pretty yummy dishes given a recipe. Last weekend he made French toast for the first time, and this past week he tried his hand at burgers. It seemed only fitting that he be the one to write about this recipe, so I turn the rest of the post over to him.

Liz is taking classes over the summer and so — in a reversal that I am still having trouble adjusting to — the cooking is left to me two nights a week. I have my specialties of course, as everyone does. I can bake at a competent level, I can turn the crock pot on, and I can make burgers. Knowing that Liz wouldn’t want dessert for dinner (at least not every night) I opted for burgers. I used a recipe that Liz created: Chicken Cordon Bleu Burgers.

Now, I am not a fan of ham for whatever reason. It just doesn’t do it for me. So I was apprehensive the first time Liz made Chicken Cordon Bleu. I was quite surprised; the ham wasn’t overwhelming and blended pleasingly with the the other ingredients. However, when Liz offered me this recipe, I was again nervous. There’s ham built right into the burger. This would surely be too much ham. Disaster awaited me.

Preparation was simple, if a little messy. I put all of the ingredients in a large bowl, added the ground chicken and mixed by hand. Somehow I still managed to use nearly every spatula and spoon in the kitchen. All of the elements of chicken cordon bleu are contained within the burger patty itself — the swiss cheese, diced ham, and the chicken — a variation on the inside-out burger. Our finished burgers had no extra toppings. We relied entirely on the burger for the flavor. They grilled up beautifully, although the pieces of ham within the burger looked a little too much like raw ground chicken for my stomach. I like my beef medium-rare to medium but undercooked chicken just scares me.

If I were to change anything I would probably use a more flavorful cheese and some more seasoning to the meat mixture; a little salt could go a long way here. As it was the burgers were good if a little bland, but the gooey-ness of the melted cheese inside was excellent. Put some sharp cheddar in there and we have a winner.